Friday, September 29, 2006

My CrackBerry addiction returns

I should have known that today would be a big day. Research In Motion announced its second-quarter results, and that somehow affected my life from afar.

For those of you who've been reading me for a while, you might remember that I spent a lot of time speaking about the big patent-based lawsuit that hung over RIM like a Sword of Damocles until earlier this year. A small company named NTP had sued RIM for patent infringement. NTP claimed RIM violated its intellectual property rights when it brought its BlackBerry to market.

When I'm not shooting close-up pictures of flower petals and our sleeping children's faces, I cover the mobile space for the tech research firm where I work. Through the course of this lawsuit, we became the BlackBerry thought leaders. If anyone wanted to know the BlackBerry zeitgeist, we were their next call.

Fast forward to this morning. I was donating blood (I like large-bore needles and pre-packaged cookies) and my cell phone rang. A radio station in Montreal was hoping I'd be able to comment. But of course. So I chatted from the chair.

Before long, I heard from Gary Doyle at 570 News in Kitchener (RIM's hometown station...see roundup here) and Report on Business Television. My intentions of spending a quiet Friday catching up on reporting and other must-do work were suddenly scuttled by a bunch of live interviews. But that's OK, because these are all some of the best interviewers one could ever hope to work with, and it's always a privilege to have the opportunity to share our perspectives through major media channels.

I got back to the office, quickly rented a car (my bicycle just wouldn't have been fast enough for the 120 km drive) and, once I was finished the lunch-hour chat on Kitchener radio, drove to Kitchener (I know, irony...but the London studio was unavailable) and did the ROBTv hit. It was a really neat format, called Toe-to-Toe, where I went head-to-head with a financial analyst and we debated RIM's prospects. I did the interview from a studio at the Kitchener CTV affiliate, CKCO, and once again it was a great learning experience.

As I drove back to London to make the rest of the day's appointments, I stared at the beautifully painted clouds in the sky and thought that this really wasn't a bad way to work. Some days, I have to pinch myself.

The ROBTv interview is available here. I hope you enjoy watching it!

Your turn: Do you love what you do for a living? Why/why not?

4 comments:

Karen said...

Carmi, only you could give blood and an interview at the same time. Amazing.

Of course I love what I do - I'm a stay-at-home mom. When I was a working mom, I liked that too, but I think my family likes me better at home. I'm a little less...angry. But, my job is coming to an end since my youngest is a freshman in high school. It's all kinda scary.

Just doing my own personal meet & greet since Michele is on a bit of a hiatus. Have a great weekend!

rashbre said...

It will be interesting to see whether the Pearl catches on.

Sandy J said...

Great job, Carmi! Really enjoyed it.
I love my job. Right now I straddle two worlds. 50% of my job is teaching and orientating new nurses that have recently been hired in our huge medical center and the other 50% is working with Information Services and help build and design a new Electronic Ambulatory Record system that hopefully will be in place the middle of next year.

Leanne said...

Not a bad interview for a guy in short ;)